Evergreen contracting, together with the RFO, will unleash even better financial savings for buyer companies and the American folks.
A spotlight of the Revolutionary Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Overhaul (RFO) is the revised aggressive ordering procedures beneath the Federal Provide Schedule (FSS) program. The RFO, per the Common Service Administration’s (GSA’s) unique statutory authority for the FSS program, transferred the ordering procedures from FAR 8.4 to Common Providers Acquisition Regulation (GSAR) Subpart 538.7100. The revised FSS ordering procedures are actually written in plain, clear and concise language. The overly complicated ordering steerage, particularly for Blanket Buy Agreements (BPA), has been eradicated whereas, on the identical time, the RFO clarifies the underlying statutory competitors necessities for FSS job and supply orders. The RFO additionally eradicated redundant parts of FAR 8.4 already addressed in FSS contract clauses, lowering the phrase depend from 9,449 within the previous FAR 8.4 to 2,363 in GSAR 538.7100. The overhaul of the FSS ordering procedures will improve competitors, promote innovation and drive best-value industrial options to fulfill buyer company wants.
The RFO successfully limits FSS contract size
An unintended consequence of the brand new ordering procedures is a major limitation on the efficient size of FSS contract phrases. What had been 20-year contracts beneath the previous FAR are de facto 10-year contracts beneath the brand new GSAR. To supply better flexibility in structuring BPAs, GSAR 538.7104-1(a) authorizes buyer companies to determine the ordering interval for the BPA. The GSAR eliminated the previous FAR 8.4’s five-year limitation on the period for BPA ordering durations. Embracing this new flexibility, buyer companies, to cut back administrative burdens and leverage competitors, are actually looking for BPAs with 10-year ordering durations. Nevertheless, GSAR 538.7104-1(b) gives that, “FSS BPAs may be established with an ordering period that extends beyond the current term of a contractor’s FSS contract, so long as there are option periods in the contractor’s FSS contact that … will cover the BPA ordering period, including options and award terms.” Thus, beneath the brand new GSAR, any contractor with lower than 10 years left on their FSS contract must submit a brand new provide and be awarded a brand new “20-year” FSS contract to have the ability to compete for any 10-year BPA. The sensible affect is to transform “20-year” FSS contracts into “10-year” FSS contracts.
The impact of this “contractual gap” might be to restrict competitors beneath the FSS program, by unduly proscribing the pool of FSS contractors who can compete for long run BPAs. Simply as considerably, GSA and its FSS contractors will see a considerable improve in workload as present contractors with lower than 10 years left on their contracts will submit new contract gives to turn out to be eligible for longer-term BPAs. Doing the mathematics, the variety of new gives for FSS contracts might greater than double as FSS contract phrases are de facto lowered to 10 years from the unique 20-year time period agreed to on the time of award. In different phrases, FSS contractors should submit new gives each 9 years.
Evergreen contracts are a well timed and revolutionary resolution
In keeping with the RFO, evergreen contracts would scale back administrative prices, streamline operations and improve competitors for GSA, buyer companies and FSS contractors. As defined within the Might 9, 2025, FAR & Past weblog, evergreen contracts will not be restrictive on time or time period. Relatively, evergreen contracts eradicate the 20-year time period by permitting FSS contracts to stay in place with no time restrict, topic to steady five-year possibility durations. Evergreen contracting will save GSA, buyer companies and business money and time. It can eradicate the well timed, pricey and redundant train of submitting, evaluating, negotiating and awarding new FSS contracts. Below evergreen, GSA and its FSS contractors can extra successfully give attention to the continuing administration of present contracts to the good thing about buyer companies and the taxpayer. And, after all, evergreen contracting will empower FSS contractors to constantly compete for the newly approved long-term BPAs. To that finish, evergreen is a pro-competition mechanism for the FSS program that’s per the RFO.
The expansion in the usage of BPAs has been a exceptional success story for the FSS program. As proven within the desk under, during the last 5 years, FSS BPAs have accounted for over 50% of the greenback quantity of FSS gross sales:
| 12 months | BPA Obligations | % of FSS |
| 2021 | $19,958,413,064.67 | 50.33% |
| 2022 | $21,226,410,338.05 | 53.02% |
| 2023 | $25,152,838,687.86 | 52.24% |
| 2024 | $27,317,655,856.62 | 52.72% |
| 2025 | $23,368,983,225.12 | 45.87% |
Buyer companies make the most of FSS BPAs to leverage necessities, streamline ordering and improve competitors. Evergreen contracting, together with the RFO, will unleash even better financial savings for buyer companies and the American folks.
Constructing on the promise of the RFO, it’s time for evergreen contracting.
Roger Waldron is president of The Coalition for Frequent Sense in Authorities Procurement.
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